Registered Dental Hygienist - Center of Oppurtunity - Adult Dental

Registered Dental Hygienist
- Center of Opportunity
- Adult Dental

El Rio Community Health Center, 450 W Paseo Redondo, Tucson, Arizona, United States of America

Posted Wednesday, July 15, 2026 at 9:00 AM

To provide dental hygiene care and education to patients in traditional and non-traditional settings in the dental clinics, integrated medical sites, or community outreach settings.

• Promotes the patients’ dental health by delivering comprehensive dental hygiene services in a quality-oriented and cost effective manner.
• Supports the capacity of the dentists to deliver patient care by acting as a dental auxiliary in providing expanded function services to the patients.
• Supports the dentist and dental team members and works in a professional, cooperative and congenial manner with the entire dental staff (i.e., dentist, hygienists, residents, students, dental assistants, and dental receptionists).
• Develops strong working relationships with medical providers that enhance communication regarding the oral health needs of their patients.
• Collaborates with a broad spectrum of health professionals while working across traditional boundaries to achieve success.
• Develops rapport with patients, family, staff members and management.
• Supervises and participates in the training of dental hygiene students and coronal polishing certified dental assistants.
• Works clinical sessions and/or supervises dental hygiene students during clinical sessions as assigned by the Dental Director, and is prepared to begin work during these clinical sessions in a punctual manner.
• Provides comprehensive dental hygiene services in a traditional dental team environment at the direction of the team dentist.
• Ability to deliver dental hygiene care which is considered reasonable, prudent, and within the abilities of a dental hygienist; to include, but not limited to, the following procedures:
• Radiology:
  Takes high quality, diagnostic images as prescribed by the dentist.
• Preventive:
  Performs dental prophylaxis, the application of topical fluorides including fluoride varnish, and the application of pit and fissure sealants.
• Patient
  
  Education:
  
  Instructs patients in all phases of oral hygiene, home care technique, nutritional counseling and tobacco cessation utilizing motivational interviewing techniques.
• Periodontics:
  Performs periodontal scaling/root planning, conservative periodontal therapy (i.e., placement of controlled-release chemotherapeutic agents), and periodontal maintenance procedures.
• Adjunctive:
  Administers local anesthesia, nitrous oxide analgesia under supervision of a dentist and all other services allowed within the scope of the AZ Dental Practice Act regarding regulation of dental hygienists.
• Provides ancillary services in support of the Dentist’s practice to include:
  • Diagnostic data collection for comprehensive examination appointments.
  • Triage of emergency patients.
  • Local anesthetic injections for the dentists’ patients.
  • Suture removal and post‑op care including dressing change.
  • Polishing of amalgam restorations.
  • Taking and recording vitals on patients.
  • Performs and documents medication reconciliation.
  • Tooth Charting and treatment planning for the dental team as needed.
  • Periodontal probing and charting.
• Provides dental hygiene care in non‑traditional settings such as medical integrated clinics and outreach events.
• Delivers high quality dental hygiene care to a diverse patient population according to the following life cycles:
  Prenatal, Pediatric, Adolescent (etc.).
• Educates patients on their unique oral health needs and desires using current best practice methods to encourage behavior change (motivational interviewing). This may include: nutritional counseling for control of dental disease,…